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Brain candy for Happy MutantsTue, 31 Mar 2015 21:52:03 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1CNN on blood falls and other Fortean phenomenahttp://boingboing.net/2014/01/17/cnn-on-blood-falls-and-other-f.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/01/17/cnn-on-blood-falls-and-other-f.html#commentsFri, 17 Jan 2014 20:59:11 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=281089
It's apparently Fortean Friday over at CNN where they share a handful of unusual natural curiosities and mysteries like "Magnetic Hill" in New Brunswick, spherical boulders in New Zealand, the "sailing stones" that creep along Death Valley, and the "Blood Falls" of Antarctica caused by an iron-rich lake below the ice.]]>

It's apparently Fortean Friday over at CNN where they share a handful of unusual natural curiosities and mysteries like "Magnetic Hill" in New Brunswick, spherical boulders in New Zealand, the "sailing stones" that creep along Death Valley, and the "Blood Falls" of Antarctica caused by an iron-rich lake below the ice. "Blood Falls and other natural oddities"]]>

The Fulton Market Cold Storage Company building in Chicago has been, well, storing cold things since the 1920s. But last July, the company sold the building and moved to a more modern facility outside town, leaving the old cold storage warehouse to be turned into offices.

But first, the new owners had to defrost it.

The Fulton Market Cold Storage building has ice-covered walls for the same reason a freezer can get covered in hard, packed ice. When you put something into a freezer — say, a giant slab of beef fresh from a slaughterhouse — that thing contains moisture. There's liquid trapped inside it. Over time, especially if it's not sealed very well, that moisture will turn into water vapor in the air. When temperature changes cause that vapor to condense back into liquid, it instantly freezes — turning to ice anywhere it touches.

In your fridge at home, that's just an annoyance. At the Fulton Market Cold Storage building, it was epic.

Besides the video above, you should really check out the amazing photos taken for the ice, pre-melt, by photographer Gary Jensen.